Alouettes fall 31-5 to Argonauts, hitting historic lows; what’s next for this troubled team?

Previous reports that the Montreal Alouettes had hit "rock bottom" after a 41-5 road loss to B.C. two weeks ago (before a bye) may have been premature, as the real low seemed to come Friday in a 31-5 home loss to Toronto. The Montreal offence looked terrible in both of those games, but after the loss to the Lions, there was at least hope things might change; quarterback Troy Smith was put on a shorter leash, wide receiver Duron Carter came back from injury, and the Alouettes even brought in famed coaches Don Matthews and Turk Schoenert as consultants. None of that helped Friday, though, as Montreal went down with guns barely sputtering in front of a crowd of 20,692 that booed them off the field at halftime (a point at which they only trailed 10-5, but showed little reason for any hope). The eventual 36-point thumping marked the first time since the Alouettes' 1996 return to Montreal that they'd failed to score double digits in back-to-back games, which says a lot about how historically bad their offence is right now. Who's to blame for that, and can it be fixed?

The biggest question heading into this one for Montreal was quarterback play, specifically the play of Smith. While he impressed in his rookie season last year, he was struggling to date, and his five-of-17 performance against B.C. was particularly bad. That led to the question of if and when the Alouettes should replace him, and he was yanked early in this one after completing just five of 10 passes for 63 yards. However, that only made things worse; backup Alex Brink connected on just nine of his 23 throws (39.1 per cent) for 60 yards with an interception. Thus, the question in Montreal coming out of this isn't "Did Smith play well enough to keep his job?" It's "Which quarterback's the least terrible option?"

Of course, all of that may not be on Smith and Brink. Offensive design has been a big issue for the Alouettes, with second-year coach Ryan Dinwiddie (elevated from QB coach to offensive coordinator following the training-camp firing of Rick Worman) seemingly out of his depth. Schoenert may be able to help with both the offensive design and the poor quarterback play, but he just arrived this week, and he doesn't have any previous CFL experience. (Look how well that worked for Mike Miller, Dan Hawkins et al.) The Montreal receivers haven't been great so far, and the line's taken a step backwards following all-star guard Scott Flory's offseason retirement (and it may take another one backwards, as 2011 league most outstanding lineman and all-star left tackle Josh Bourke suffered what looked like a bad injury late in this game.) The ground game hasn't produced much either, with Brandon Whitaker collecting just 31 yards on 12 carries Friday.

Nothing's really working for the Alouettes at the moment. While Smith and Brink have certainly been big parts of the problem, they're far from the only ones facing questions in Montreal. However, the question about what to do at the quarterback slot may be the largest one, and its resolution may say a lot about what GM Jim Popp and head coach Tom Higgins believe to be the problem here. If the issue is Smith and/or Brink, then the Als will have to go in another direction, perhaps elevating third-stringer Tanner Marsh or practice-squad man Jonathan Crompton. If the issue is the personnel around them, changes will have to be made there. If the issue is the play-calling, maybe Dinwiddie won't keep his role as OC for long. There's no clear solution for Montreal at the moment, but it seems likely that they'll have to do something after a loss like this.